Friday, July 18, 2014

DearREADERS,
24 hours of indexing? Oh my! This weekend FamilySearch asks genealogists the world over to participate in the FamilySearch Worldwide Indexing Event. Ol' Myrt here supported the 1940 US Federal Census Indexing project which was so popular the job was done a few weeks ahead of schedule. Last summer even my two oldest grandchildren participated in the 24 hour indexing event with some 49,000 additional indexers and arbitrators. This year FamilySearch is going for:

IMAGE: Courtesy of Microsoft.

quantity of indexersnot

quantity of completed batches.

From FamilySearch: "The goal? For 50,000 indexers and arbitrators to submit at least one batch in a 24-hour period! Do more if you would like, but one batch is all that is required to be counted in the record!"WHY INDEX?
Ask any newbie genealogist and they'll tell you they look in the index to find listings for possible ancestors.

WHY FAMILYSEARCH INDEXING?
With double, blind data entry we have increased accuracy when interpreting old handwritten ledgers. Top that off with an arbitrator who reviews keystroke differences tagged by the computer. This means at least two, if not three, sets of eyes are working through the very pages mentioning your ancestors, creating the best possible index.

Are there faults? Sure. Human error occurs even with an original document.

WHAT'S THE GeneaSleepOver ALL ABOUT?
It's a DearMYRTLE Hangout on Air with 24 hours of non-stop genealogy news, information, interviews and demos along with 15 minutes per hour indexing via FamilySearch Indexing.

WHENSunday, 20 July - Monday, 21 July 2014beginning at 6pm Mountain Time (Denver)